Aberdeen defender Andrew Considine tells Red Army its 'bonkers' to expect the Dons to snatch Premiership title from Celtic

DONS star, Andrew Considine has urged fans to be realistic with their expectations for this season's Premiership campaign saying the financial difference between Celtic and Aberdeen is too big to ignore.

Andrew Considine reckons it’s crazy to suggest Aberdeen can mount a title challenge to Celtic this season – but it doesn’t mean the Dons won’t have a go.

The Pittodrie side are hitting the ground running in the Premiership after a decent swing at the Europa League.

They dumped Dutch outfit Groningen on their way to the third qualifying round before slamming into La Liga stars Real Sociedad.

Derek McInnes’s men gave the Basque big guns a heck of a scare on a memorable night at Pittodrie on Thursday – leading 2-1 before getting suckered by two late goals to crash out 5-2 on aggregate.

Aberdeen showed enough to suggest they’ll be a force to be reckoned with this year while Celtic were a shambles against Legia Warsaw and yet have stumbled back into the Champions League through the back door.

The Hoops finished 31 points ahead of third-placed Dons last term and 28 in front of runners-up Motherwell.

Now the Red Army reckon the Parkhead side could be there for the taking and are dreaming of a 15-point swing either way to fire them into a title race.

But Considine insists the punters have to get real.

The Dons kick off their campaign at home to Dundee United tomorrow and he said: “I’d say it is bonkers to suggest that. A lot of people say we should be challenging Celtic but the financial difference is still massive.

“They have a huge depth in squad, although getting back into Europe means they will be playing Thursday-Sunday a lot of weeks.

“It’s going to be tough but they’re used to being in Europe every year. They will still be a strong side.

“It would be nice to get off to a flier and put some pressure on. We suffered on the last day of last season and the boys don’t want that again. We want to go one step further this time round. Second is realistic for us.”

Considine insists Aberdeen are on a high after their Euro exploits. Pittodrie was bouncing as they pushed Sociedad all the way on Thursday and the defender hopes the feelgood factor can propel the side in the Premiership.

He said: “The run has put us in good stead. We have had six tough games and some good results.

“No one had us winning in Groningen – even they said the tie was 80 per cent won after the first leg. It was great to get through and take on Sociedad who went right to the wire against Man United in the Champions League last season.

“You could see the confidence we had against them so fingers crossed we can take that into the new season.

“It might have been a different game if we got the first goal and went in 1-0 up at half-time. We had them rattled but you wouldn’t expect a team of that quality to lose three or four goals.

“It’s been a great run though. It’s so difficult for Scottish clubs to make the group stages these days. We only had one game the last time in 2007. It’s hard, especially when you hit La Liga sides in the qualifiers.”

Fellow defender Mark Reynolds insisted Aberdeen can’t afford to get caught up in competing with Celtic.

He said: “Obviously we want to compete with them and get as close as we can. We’ll give it a go but if we start thinking about hanging on Celtic’s coat tails we’ll trip ourselves up.

“The European run has given us a good platform and tees us up perfectly. It’s been good to have the six competitive games and it means we’ll hit the ground running.

“The boys are flying. I saw it at Motherwell when we had the six games in Europe. The first half dozen games of the season we were blowing teams away as the other sides were not quite up to speed.”

McInnes is not making rash promises. He just wants his side to top the last campaign.

He said: “It doesn’t sit well with any manager to see Celtic with such a big gap. We want to improve on last season.

“Dundee United here is a brilliant opening fixture. Both sides were rubbing their hands when the list came out.

“There will be another big crowd which is fantastic and we’re up against a good side.”